Life, 1927-04-07 · page 27 of 59
Life — April 7, 1927 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes travelers and their tedious stories. The "Ballad of the Eternal Travelogue" mocks how tourists—from Marco Polo onward—inevitably bore listeners with the same clichéd anecdote: "A lady entered a sleeping-car." The poem suggests that despite exotic travels to Bombay, Timbuctu, and distant lands, travelers reduce everything to this single, repetitive tale. The cartoons reinforce this theme: 1. **"The Yanks Are Coming"**: French observers react to American tourists arriving with their characteristic tackiness. 2. **"The Hotel Clerk Goes Crazy"**: A frantic monologue capturing the absurd demands of difficult hotel guests—unreasonable requests, complaints, and general chaos—satirizing both tourist entitlement and hospitality worker exhaustion. 3. **"Dumb Dora's" bit**: A final jab at vacuous tourists who collect "pennants" (souvenirs) rather than genuine experiences. The overall message: modern tourism produces shallow, interchangeable experiences and insufferable travelers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Ballade of the Eternal Travelogue [** garnered tales of the open way From many a traveler tried and true; I've talked with tourists both young and gray, Who've roamed from Greenland to Xanadu— A rewiniscent, loquacious crew, Eager to tell how they've journeyed far; And this is the tale they most often brew: “A lady entered a sleeping-car...” Stalkers of tigers beyond Bombay, Slayers of lions near Timbuctu, Treaders of ties on the Santa Fé, Haunters of Strasse, Prospekt and Rue— What are their narratives, bright of hue, Of hill and prairie, of sail and spar? This, as a rule, is how they come through: “A lady entered a sleeping-car...” When Marco Polo, in Kublai’s day, Returned from voyages o'er the blue, Who knows what things he was wont to say What time he started to tell a few? What were the stories Magellan knew (The man who first “went around” in par)? Perhaps they cried, when they got the cue, “A lady entered a sleeping-car...”” L'Esvor Prince, I've been saving one just for you— Of travel stories the shining star— A tale unique in its point of vie “A lady entered a sleeping-car D’Annunzio Cohen, Detached HE. real altruist is the man that, on his way to the dentist's on in- come tax day, opens a letter from his fiancce announcing that everything is over between them, and_ starts worrying about the Chinese situation. RIS: What would you do if your fiancé lost all his money? Doris: I'd leave him flat. The Yanks Are Coming “LooK, FRANGOIS—zE povcH Boys! The Hotel Clerk Goes Crazy “NO madam we don’t allow guests to keep horses in their rooms the cashier will give you a one-cent stamp and change for a thousand- dollar bill something with a bath and southern exposure yes sir I'll change your room if you wish but I can’t have that man thrown out of the hotel because he owns the hotel you want the bath-tub put where the dresser stands and a piano moved into the bathroom yes miss the cight o'clock train leaves the Union Sta- “WHY, | DIDN’T EXPECT TO SEE YOU tion at eight o'clock you want some- thing for about four dollars a day on the top floor not too high up away from the strect on the ground floor facing the street you'll have to hire a room Mr. Bloch I'm afraid you can’t display samples of steam-rollers in the lobby. Robert Lord. UMB DORA'S latest (it any) thought is that a symposium is a sort of home for the feeble-minded. CONF 6 Gane CK FOR ANOTHER WEEK.” “WE HAD TO SHORTEN OUR TRIP—DIDN’T HAVE ROOM FOR ANY MORE PENNANTS.” comicbooks.com